West Des Moines EMS is a municipal emergency medical services company that serves the people of West Des Moines. We cover an area that is approximately 38.5 square miles, responding to the needs of around 65,000 citizens. We are a third service organization. WDM Fire and Police provide first response to calls within our territory.

In 2013, we responded to 7098 calls. In 2014, that number jumped to 7520. There was another large increase in call volume from 2014 to 2015, with a total of 8324 calls. Last year, in 2016, we had 8752 calls for the year.

We are made up of a staff of approximately 80 personnel, full-time and part-time. We have eleven ambulances. Three full-time city ambulances respond to 911 calls 24/7. Two full-time ambulances transport patients for Unity Point Hospitals 24/7. We have an additional Sprinter ambulance that operates weekdays during the day, running hospital trips. We have two backup ambulances for the department. The backup trucks are used for special events, extra hospital trips, and when ambulances need to go in for maintenance. We also have a specialty ambulance that serves our pediatric and neonate populations. This ambulance is built on a Freightliner chassis and can hold two patients.

Westcom provides dispatching for the 911 ambulances, using medical priority dispatching. 911 ambulances are dispatched according to GPS location. Due to our CAAS accreditation, we get to the scene of the majority of emergent 911 calls in less than eight minutes and 59 seconds and nonemergent calls in less than nine minutes and 59 seconds. Our personnel have less than a minute (during the day) to go en route from the time of being notified of the call. During evening and nighttime hours, our personnel have less than two minutes to go en route to a call. Unity Point Dispatch dispatches the hospital ambulances.

All full-time paramedics are required to be trained at the CCP level within 6 months of being hired.